Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Protection
- Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One. Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us. Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us. Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear. We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.
As I read
through the chapter for today, I have to admit that my first thought was, “How
would have liked being selected for the gatekeeper duty?” Honestly, there is a certain blandness about
this chapter. The people selected today
just stand at the gates and watch the people come in and out.
Then I
have to stop and ask, “Am I really that vain?”
After all, how self-centered does a person have to be to say to God, “No,
really, I’d rather do something else, something that isn’t as boring as watching
over the people.” The reality is that
when we have this reaction to a chapter like this, it can show our priorities
and our perspective.
Let me
spin this chapter in a different light.
What were the gatekeepers tasked with doing? Remember, there were twelve gates into the
temple. The gatekeepers were tasked with
making sure that each of these gates were safe and secure. The gatekeepers were tasked with making sure
that people went where they were supposed to go and people were following the
rules. Remember, there were areas in the
temple for Gentiles, women, men, priests, and high priests. Each of those had to be regulated. Each of these had to be administered. Thousands of people would be coming through
the gates wanting to make their yearly sacrifice. This was no easy job.
That
brings us to the idea of protection.
What these gatekeepers were tasked with doing was protection. They were protecting the people and making
the temple safe. But they were also
protecting the holiness of the space.
They were tasked with protecting the spirituality of the people as they
came in contact with a holy God. When
put in this perspective, this is no small or insignificant task. God seeks to place His protection into our
life. We should never think that His
protection is a small or trivial thing.
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